Re: Space funding (was Re: Hillary needs to quit)

"Dano" <janeanddano@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

>Derek Lyons wrote:
>> "Dano" <janeanddano@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>
>>> John Schilling wrote:
>>>> On Mon, 07 Apr 2008 16:13:32 -0500, pv+usenet@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 (PV) wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> John Schilling <schillin@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes:
>>>>>>> And you'd be right. Obama discussed delaying the Constellation
>>>>>>> Project for five years, not shutting down NASA. *
>>>>>>
>>>>>> What did he say NASA was going to be doing during those five years
>>>>>> instead of Constellation?
>>>>
>>>>> (groups trimmed, subject refocused)
>>>>
>>> <more trimming...back to the over-riding issue>
>>>
>>> "When more than 1 million students a year drop out of high school,
>>> it's more than a problem, it's a catastrophe." - Colin Powell,
>>> founding chairman of America's Promise Alliance, which issued a
>>> re****t last Tuesday that says 17 of the 50 largest cities have high
>>> school graduation rates below 50 percent. (from the Boston Globe,
>>> April 5th - Quotes of Note)
>>>
>>> We can't afford to educate the next generation of NASA employees.
>>> We better figure out how to do that first.  It's about spending
>>> priorities.
>>
>> Ever actually compared NASA's budget to those 'other priorities'?
>>
>> I thought not.  Or you'd note what a vani****ngly small drop in the
>> bucket it amounts to.  Someone even more intellectually honest and
>> agile would note the vast amount of money we've spent on those 'other
>> priorities' over the years, and the astoni****ngly small return - and
>> wonder if the problem really was that we aren't shoveling enough money
>> into the furnace.
>>
>
>I know that education spending *is* a very small drop in the bucket
compared 
>to the spending on the havoc we haved wreaked in the Middle East lately. 

Nice - when confronted with facts you don't want to acknowledge...
You move the goalposts.

>Meanwhile...we have to educate our children...our future...now.  I know
more 
>money alone is not the answer. 

Yet, your sole suggestion is to spend more money.

>I also know *less* is certainly not.

And you know this how?

>This is also most certainly *not* the only item we need to spend on
*before* 
>the space program.  This is one area that is absolutely well suited to 
>funding from the private sector...and for international cooperation. 
Let's 
>get the wealthy oil nations, the Chinese (who are already so 
>enthusiastically investing in America), the Japanese to join in this 
>exploration. 

Ah yes, here you manage to pander to both ends of political spectrum
by proposing not only privatization _but_ also joining hands around
the globe and singing Kum Ba Ya.

>If we...for example...presented this as an outlet to the 
>aimless youth being recruited into terrorist organizations in the arab 
>world...we might slow the spread of that type of fanatism.  But let's
start 
>thinking outside the box we have placed ourselves in...you know...that 
>shoveling money into any furnace is a good thing. 

Yet, you propose cutting the space program in favor of shoveling more
money in to the education furnace.

Do you actually think about this stuff in any detail, or just make it
up as you go along?  (My bet is on the latter.)

D.
-- 
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.

http://derekl1963.livejournal.com/

-Resolved: To be more temperate in my postings.
Oct 5th, 2004 JDL